


Departure

by RedWyvern



Series: Echoes of Dreams [3]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Heartbreak
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-16
Updated: 2020-04-16
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:27:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23689924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedWyvern/pseuds/RedWyvern
Summary: A story from before Atara came to Eorzea.
Series: Echoes of Dreams [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1697563





	Departure

Bright red eyes watched the red moon as it descended achingly slowly towards Eorzea. The young xaela drew her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, resting her chin on top. She stuck out her jaw to blow a breath of air up and get her bangs from her face, reaching up to smooth back her hair, tucking one of the dark red braids she held her hair in behind her backward facing horns. Beyond the falling moon shone the countless stars, she turning her eyes up towards the center of the sky and peering deep into space. 

After a few moments, she grimaced and looked down, holding her hands in front of herself and looking at her palms. She flexed her right hand; it closed as bid into a tight fist. She flexed her left; her fingers barely curled over the red, scarred skin of her palm. A breath exhaled through her nose as she closed her eyes, dropping her forehead to her knees as she spoke softly. “I’m only seventeen. My hands are useless for anything but the base armorcraft and cooking I was taught, I’m barely suitable to be a mother or the next Shaman. And that land may well be no more before I could get there. Why then, spirits, do you wish for me to go? To witness death?” 

She felt a tear slide free of her eyes and catch in the curve of the scales on her cheek, reaching up and irritably brushing it away as she blinked the rest from her eyes. Soon came the gentle press of her Elder spirit on her thoughts, impressing the sensation of caring and it’s trust of her, trying to impart it upon her to trust as well. The teen shook her head a little again, turning her head so she could lean her cheek to her knees, eyes looking out over the nighttime landscape of the island she and her clan had called home for the majority of her life as she listened to the waves wash against the nearby shore. “You know I don’t question you, much. You’ve not led me astray, or my family. But this is just…” She tightened her hold on her legs some. “..You give me no indication of _why_ I should go to Eorzea. I could learn better crafting there I guess, but why is that so important to send me as the moon falls?”

Her shoulders tensed as she heard someone walking through the tall grasses behind her, the muscles relaxing a moment later as she recognized the cadence of the steps, letting her eyes close for a moment. The shuffle through the grass came to a stop at her side, a warm hand resting on her shoulder. “Ah, here you are, Atara. Your brother was alarmed to find you not in your bed.” 

Atara grimaced some as she lifted her head from her knees, looking up to the older au ra woman at her side. “I’m sorry emee. I thought evoo saw me leave?” The elderly woman gathered her robes up some in her hands before she smoothly sat down, brushing her own braided hair over her shoulder, her braids white as the stars that flickered above. She adjusted the heavy beads about her neck, then reached out to rest her hand on the small of Atara’s back, softly rubbing her hand back and forth.

“He did, but your brother did not. It was all your evoo could do to keep him from charging out on horseback to look for you.” The clan matriarch smiled gently, coaxing her granddaughter to lean against her, it not taking much to get the teen to rest her head on her. “So, my dear, what has you out here in your thinking place so early in the morning that the sun hasn’t yet woken?”

Atara made a little noise at this particular hill being called her ‘thinking place’, but she knew it was true. Ever since she had first heard the voices of her Elder spirit and the others this was where she came to ponder their intention, connected to the wind, land and nearby waves. She reached out, plucking a piece of grass and twirling it lightly between her fingers as she grumbled a little. “I...emee…” She sighed. 

Shifting a bit, the matriarch curled her tail to gently brush along the length of Atara’s, her older scales a duller color than the glossy black of the teenagers. She didn’t say anything, simply sat with her arm around the teen, letting her find the words on her own as her own yellow eyes watched the horizon and waves of the ocean. 

Holding up her scarred hand, Atara looked at her palm again, then summoned her voice, a light tremble to her breath. “After I was hurt, I thought the only thing I could be good at was to stay with you and open myself more to the spirits, to heed their words and help our family.” She let her grandmother take hold of her hand, her mind noting the similarities between her scarred hand and her grandmother's hand, fingers bent with age. The elder au ra pressed her thumb gently into Atara’s palm, rubbing softly.

“You have always been strong in your ability to hear the spirits, but that never meant that it was all you could do, my dearest.” She repeated the words she would so often say when the teen began to doubt herself or found something difficult to do. 

“I know, I know. Everyone has faith in me but myself, I guess.” Atara lifted her eyes to look at her grandmother's profile. The older woman was clearly family to her, they having the same swept back horns, similar features, and it was not random that Atara had decided to wear her hair in braids that would eventually turn into dreadlock coils, she wanted to emulate the woman who raised her. Her chest tightened and stole away her breath as the thought of leaving rose again, unable to stop the grimace from crossing her features before she lowered her gaze and turned her face down, feeling the heat of tears at the corner of her eyes. Her grandmother caught the look, her tail gently coiling around Atara’s as she slid her arm more securely around the teen, barely a woman.

“Ah. They ask something great of you.” She softly stated, turning her head to gently rub the edge of her horn along the top of Atara’s, the loving gesture getting a tremble and softly choked sound from the younger one. 

Atara didn’t care how old she was as she turned towards the matriarch and moved to crawl into her lap, wrapping her arms around the older woman's neck and burying her face into her shoulder as she clung to her grandmother’s robe. The elderly au ra wrapped her arms around her kin and held her close, rocking softly back and forth as she felt the heat of tears soak into her shoulder, her hand stroking smoothly along the younger one’s back, pressing her cheek softly to her as she sat silent, letting the emotions wash over the other. 

The light of the stars slowly faded as the sun began to rise behind them, casting the sky in a red color that slowly stretched overhead, lending it’s hue to the ocean waves and glistening on the dew clinging to the grass. Gradually, Atara’s tears slowed and her hiccuping breaths steadied, her trembling grip on the matriarch’s robe softening as her shoulders slumped. She kept her face pressed to the cloth damp with her tears, voice muffled but loud enough for the elder to hear. “They tell me to go to Eorzea. To leave you, and the clan, and to go to a land where we don’t even know if au ra have ever walked upon it. They say nothing but to go.”

The elderly woman smiled gently, her suspicions confirmed with her granddaughter's words. She raised her hand, sliding it smoothly along Atara’s hair and down along her back again. “Not too unlike how they told me to pack up my family and part of our clan from the steppes and to simply ‘head west’, twenty years past.”

Atara grunted lightly, voice still muffled. “Yes, but that wasn't their first major wish of you.” She leaned her head back, the red of her eyes more intense from her tears. “You were already second only to the head Shaman, who told others to join you. I know...I _know_ that I will be asked to do this alone.” 

She closed her eyes again as her grandmother reached up and cupped her cheek in her hand, leaning to press a soft kiss to the patch of scales on her forehead. “And you will be able to do so because you are strong. I know you know this, inside, and in time you will know it up here, as well.” The older woman lightly tapped on those scales she had just kissed. 

The younger woman sighed as she reluctantly, somewhat guiltily, slid from the lap she had climbed into, staying close to the other’s side. “I know that following the spirits means...trust, more than anything. I just...we may never see each other again until the eternal plain, and that hurts.”

“I know, my love, I know.” 

Atara tried to suppress the sigh that welled up, but let it go after a moment and gently leaned her head to her grandmother's shoulder again. “Can we just..stay like this for a while? I need time to steady before telling everyone else and starting to prepare.”

“Of course. My task is to be with you today, my little one. Whatever it is you need.” The matriarch closed her own eyes as she rested her head softly against the other, savoring the nearness for what time she could.

**Author's Note:**

> A wonderful little corner of Discord, please come join us! https://discord.gg/5TdhTCV


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